“And it’s all good cause I’m no good and believe me you don’t need me it’s a big world and I’m old news to you.” -Allison Weiss, “July 25, 2007” A year ago, I’d just finished editing my first novel…
Category: The Long Tunnel
The Way Life Used to Be
Boy, can I not wait for this year to be over! Who’s with me? Yesterday I found out that I need a root canal, which joins my wife leaving me and kidney stones as great things that have happened in…
Second Street Soliloquy
“Courage is when you’re afraid but you keep on moving anyway courage is when you’re in pain but you keep on living anyway It’s not how many times you’ve been knocked down it’s how many times you get back up…
New Toy
I’ve made it pretty clear this year that I will neither be sending nor receiving gifts for Christmas or associated holiday seasons, though I’m still deliberating about sending out a New Year’s Letter. On the one hand, it’s a tradition…
After the Snow
Before the Snow | During the Snow The summers I was 14 and 15, I spent intense three-week sessions at the Center for Talented Youth (CTY) at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The program was designed to augment the studies…
Before the Snow
The conflagration crackles in the cast-iron fireplace. The tabby lounges on the table, soaking up the radiant warmth from its glow at a safe, unsingeworthy distance. Later he will rise and stretch, his yawn revealing sharp fangs that have never…
What I’ve Learned in the Last 48 Hours
There seems to be a directly proportional (or close) relationship between pain and learning. Or at least challenge and growth. Our muscles exist as a metaphor for the way we are supposed to advance ourselves. With the tearing of new…
Land of Enchantment in Forty Flicks
My month-long return to Nuevo Mexico is off to a bit of a rough start. I just can’t seem to get in an emotional groove I feel good about. Someone or other told me the first holiday season would be…
From You to Me
I don’t know why I’m afraid to fly back to my home where I know I’ll be all right I never could quite say how you made me feel the way you always did but kid, I’d never treat you…
The UMBC Redemption
The 2002 American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA) National Championship at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) was one of the great highs and lows of my life. It marked the culmination of my competitive debate career and a turning…